We had our first Hack Your Career Talk of this Summer with Adbrain (@AdbrainTech). We went back to their office in Fitzrovia to meet with the inspiring people behind the company to talk to them about their tips for young entrepreneurs.

Rashid Mansoor: CTO & Co-Founder

Why start-ups ?I’ve been writing code from young age, one of the things I always made sure I did was work on original ideas. It always motivated me to learn and to discover new things. I’ve worked In corporate jobs before but I’ve also always made sure that I was building stuff. I was selling software to businesses at a pretty young age. I did my first start up in the early 2000’s which was both hardware and software. I found there was so much freedom when you build your own start up and there is a lack of that when you’re working in a corporate environment. It's a real struggle to surface your own talents, skills and your abilities and tap into them and use them all. It tends to fall very narrowly on one aspect of your talents. I like start-ups as they allow you to define your own role, focus on your strengths and really transform the company though your abilities. As opposed to adhering to what a job description tells you.What skills do you need to thrive in a start-up role?Start-ups above all require the ability to adapt and high intelligence. You need to be super smart, you need to be able to learn very quickly but at the same time you need to be able to adapt to a completely new situation. If you realise that the approach you are taking has been exhausted, you need to be able to switch gears, backtrack and do something different to solve the problem. At the end of the day you are going to have problems and solving them is the lifeblood of the start-up, you can’t just get stuck on one track, you need adaptability.Why is Tech the place to be?Because of the state of technology, because of Moore’s law, because electronics and engineering have advanced to a state where hardware is so widely available. Its quite easy to come up with innovative products, implement them in short order, test, iterate and scale, which isn’t quite as easy in other industries.

Elia Videtta: Co-Founder and Director of Development Operations

Why a start-up environment and not a big corporate?I think the thing about the start-ups is that when you’re the founder, it is all down to you. With a corporate there is already a lot done for you , there is a lot of legacy in terms of the code. For programmers, you are going through other peoples code. Starting a start up is basically doing the thing you love doing for your living but also following your ideas and trying things out for yourself.

What has your ability to code enabled you to do?It has allowed me to build my analytical skills- it allows you to think abstractly and gives you a bunch of transferable skills. So you don’t necessarily have to become a coder, you can become a product manager or manage developers. Software development is a field in and of itself, but learning how to code opens the doors to so many other things than just coding.

Sam Savage: Data Scientist

Tell us a little bit about what you do on a day to day basis at Adbrain?I’m a big data scientist, In a nutshell we take very large datasets or large unstructured data and try and find patterns in it. Either we use these pattern to inform businesses or we use the patterns to create products. The classic example is targeted advertising.

How did you get into Tech?I studied computation and logic at Uni , which took me away from maths and took me into a practical domain. I always wanted to go into programming- When I was young I basically wanted to create games. But I soon realised I could make a lot more money working in datascience than I could in games, and also work a lot less hard!

Behzad Behzaden: Data Scientist In Artificial Intelligence

What was your first experience with coding and technology?In my undergraduate degree I had one of two interactions with coding but I didn’t enjoy it. I later became interested in artificial intelligence, so that dragged me into coding. At first it was a bit tough but now I am actually enjoying it, it’s really interesting. The more you learn the more you understand that it has it’s own philosophy.

What advice would you give to someone who doens’t have a computer science degree but wants to be in this industry?When I started, I was mathematical, but I had no experience in programming. You can easily learn if you are persistent. The good thing about coding and tech is that everything is on the internet. If you want to learn something you can just google it . There are so many blogs and videos out there which make it easier.

Tim Abraham: Data Platform Manager

Why start-ups?I started in a start-up but then moved into a corporate and back, so I’ve seen both sides. One thing about a start-up is that it’s pretty meritorious you can have a big impact and feel like your making change happen. That’s why I find it more rewarding. In a larger organisation it’s much harder for one individual to move the huge boat. The atmosphere and camaraderie is also really important, which nobody tell you. In a start-up there is a shared vision and mission. Whilst there are advantages in corportates- such as the ability to jump between business units, the ability to have an impact on something tangible is really present in start-ups.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to get into a non-tech role?Firstly do some research into what you are interested in to see how technology is applied. I’m not super technical but I have an understanding of technology. I have a top down vision of what’s going on.

Guillermo Schiava D'Albano: Research Developer and Engineer

What is it you enjoy most about working in Tech?Its similar to working in research, you are constantly developing a tool which sometone will use straight away. If you work in a large company, you might develop a product that nobody uses for years

Is it too late to get into Tech if you don’t have a computer science degree?No, it it never too late. I don’t have a computer science degree! We need women and men in Tech, it’s not a job that is concerned with who you are . If you are into Tech , please join us.